ANGRY parents want all their drug-addicted children to be forcibly taken to rehab.
The parents' group Sefelani Ngaba Ntwana Bethu from Orange Farm Drieziek 4, south of Joburg, meets every day to discuss how they can ensure that their kids are not killed by community members and that they are safe from drugs.
One of the parents, Fikile Manana, said she has been fighting with many men in recent days who wanted her to hand over her son to them as they accused him of stealing. She said she refused because the men wanted to kill her son.
"As parents, we did not give birth to drug addicts, and this is very stressful for us as parents. Many have depression now because they know their kids are being killed every day by members of the community," she said.
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Gauteng Premier Lesufi had promised to take drug addicts to a state-owned farm for six months to rehabilitate them.
Manana said they now plan to go to Lesufi’s office, dressed only in their panties and demand that the premier make good on his promise to take their drug-addicted children to rehab.
"Every drug addict on the street must go to rehab and the admission procedures must be abolished, as they take a very long time while drug suppliers make money and our kids continue to die every day from drugs and mob attacks while the police do not do their job,” she said.
According to Manana, they also plan to deal directly with the drug traffickers because the police are not helping them, adding that they are fed up with drugs in their township.
Another parent, Nthabiseng Theko, said that a few years ago her son told her that he was tired of taking drugs and asked her to lock him up in the house, which she did.
"After six months, he started smoking drugs again after not touching them for a year," she said.
Gauteng community safety official Tebogo Ramofofi urged the parents to work with his office to take down drug dealers in the township before they take the law into their own hands, because that would land them in jail.
